Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine

Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, 1981 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 2nd Edition. English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket); 22.5 x 29 cm; 2.084 Kg; 194 pages plus appendix with 142 black and white plates.; Used with wear marks on the dust jacket, which is slightly faded on spine and the right side of the front cover. The interior is as new except for a previous owner stamp on the front free endpaper.; The collection of early Chinese porcelain brought together by Shah Abbas the Great of Persia and piously presented in 1611 to the dynastic shrine at Ardebil is among the finest that have survived. Now rehoused in the Archaeological Museum, Teheran, it is rich in blue-and-white painted wares of the Yuan and Ming dating from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, and also includes monochrome-glazed and polychrome-enamelled wares and a good group of Lung-ch'uan celadon. This study by John Pope, the celebrated authority and former Director of the Freer Gallery in Washington, was first published by the gallery in 1956, and was soon acknoledge as a classic. In it Dr Pope not only provides a lavishly-illustrated survey of the collection with a full account of its formation and fortunes, but also examines in detail the chief problems confronting the historian of Ming porcelain as a whole. While others have pressed forward with that task his meticulous study of this unique collection still remains essential reading. The new edition incorporates additional footnotes by the author and an extended bibliography..